Industrial Solutions - Winning New Business

Winning new business for the Industrial Solutions group requires much more than providing a quotation with a price and waiting to receive the purchase order. A typical new business award will be the opportunity to supply a quantity of parts at an agreed upon price for 3-4 years. The automotive sector represents the primary customer base for the wire harness team and each year the automotive industry works to reduce the supply base to those companies that can meet a more demanding set of criteria. Each year the challenge is to extend payment terms, provide price reductions, reduce lead-times, reduce Defective Parts Per Million (DPPM), and increase our engineering support. This seems exhausting just reading it!

Telamon continues to flourish in this industry by accepting these challenges and by working to improve our processes and increase our product knowledge. Our customers are acknowledging their appreciation of these efforts by awarding new business. We are also being exposed to new customers and new business opportunities based on this reputation. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to be introduced to new business. The same is true when a valuable contact at an existing customer moves to another company and introduces us to their new company.

While price is the perceived prime driver, we are surprised recently at the focus on quality, delivery, and customer support. Our customers must highlight our performance in these areas when promoting Telamon for new business because our customers will disqualify a supplier that does not meet the performance requirements in these areas even if their price is lower. The emphasis on quality and delivery means that everyone in our organization plays a role in winning new business! 

We use Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) tools to assure that we meet each of these expectations. Our customers use Contract Reviews, Team Feasibility Commitments, Supplier Quality Portals, and other documents to monitor our progress in developing the production processes. Additionally, our customers regularly audit our Fresnillo facility to assure we are producing their parts in compliance with the process documentation.    

It can be grueling at times, however we enjoy our automotive business and are always actively involved in winning new customers in other markets. We have a specific strategy to help us achieve this initiative, and we will discuss this strategy in our next blog!

- David Lillich

VP Sales

Industrial Solutions - Telamon Corporation